Santa Clara, the capital, is located almost in the center of the province, well above the sea level. Its wide, well kept streets are suggestive of health and prosperity. It was founded in 1689, and until 1900 was the eastern terminus of the main railroad line running east from Havana. Rich fertile lands surround Santa Clara, while the mining interests a little to the south, although not at present developed, give every promise of future importance. Copper ore of excellent quality has been found in a number of places between Santa Clara and Trinidad, while silver, zinc and gold are found in the same zone, but up to the present not in quantities that would justify the investment of capital in their development. Ten thousand tons of asphalt are mined annually not far from the city, and considerable tobacco is grown in the surrounding country. The population is estimated at 15,000. Sagua la Grande is located on the Sagua River, twenty miles up from the port of La Isabella. It is a comparatively modern city, with wide streets, and is the distributing point for the large sugar estates of that section. Its population is 12,000. The Port of Caibarien has grown into considerable importance owing to the large amount of sugar brought in by the different railroads, for storage in the big stone warehouses that line the wharf. Shoal water necessitates lightering out some fifteen miles to a splendid anchorage under the lee of Cayo Frances, on the outer edge of the great salt water lagoon which envelops the entire north coast of Santa Clara. The population is 7,000. Five miles west, on the line between Caibarien and Santa Clara, is the little old city of Remedios, that once occupied a place on the coast, but was compelled by the unfriendly visits of pirates, as were many other cities in Cuba in the olden days, to move back from the sea shore, so that the inhabitants could be warned of an approaching enemy. Around Remedios, large fields of tobacco furnish the chief source of income to this city of six or seven thousand people. The great “Cienaga de Zapata,” or Swamp of the Shoe, so called on account of its strange resemblance to a heeled moccasin, although geographically a part of the Province of Matanzas, has nevertheless always been included in the boundaries of Santa Clara. Its length from east to west is about sixty-five miles, with an average width from north to south of twenty. Many plans, at different times since the first Government of Intervention, have been formed for the drainage and reclaiming of this great swamp of the Caribbean, whose area is approximately twelve hundred square miles. Nearly all of the surface is covered with hard wood timber, growing in a vast expanse of water, varying in depth from one to three feet. Owing to its lack of incline in any direction, reclamation of this isolated territory is not easy, although the land, after the timber was removed and the water once disposed of, would probably be very valuable.